


Olive Branch

by thesometimeswarrior



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Ficlet, Gen, Guardian-Ward Relationship, Personal Growth, Post-Episode: s04e04 Mindful Education, Reconciliation, Teacher-Student Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-13
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:34:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28050078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesometimeswarrior/pseuds/thesometimeswarrior
Summary: “Well,” Pearl flits her eyes to the ground. “I must admit, this is not how I expected this all to go.”“What?” Stevonnie doesn’t move. Their voice is still dreamlike—still emerging from that peaceful place between sleep and wakefulness where they’d spent the past hours.“Your training. It…I…I intended for it to be something of an apology, anolive branchof sorts to use a human expression, but—”“Anapology?!” Now, Stevonnie’s voice is nothingbutwakefulness. They sit up. “Forwhat?!”Pearl slowly sighs. “When you fused for the first time, I—”“Oh.”
Relationships: Pearl & Stevonnie (Steven Universe)
Comments: 11
Kudos: 59





	Olive Branch

Stevonnie’s still laying content in the grass when Garnet and Pearl find them, and after a frantic series of questions and assurances that they are, in fact, uninjured, the two Gems join them. Garnet sprawls out like them—arms and legs spread wide like so that she resembles the star on Steven’s t-shirt, or the snow angels that Connie used to make with her father every winter. For Pearl, it’s a more gingerly affair—she folds her legs daintily on the ground. But the wind rustles her hair too, and the sun slowly tracks its way across her gem as the three of them—or five, depending on how you count—sit together, quietly, smiling, simply feeling their own existences in the moment.  
  
Eventually though, Garnet rises to wander on her own and with her two component parts in the woods—if she has sacred spaces, Stevonnie supposes that this, this grove underneath the Sky Arena, must be chief among them—leaving Pearl and Stevonnie on their own.  
  
“Well,” Pearl flits her eyes to the ground. “I must admit, this is not how I expected this all to go.”  
  
“What?” Stevonnie doesn’t move. Their voice is still dreamlike—still emerging from that peaceful place between sleep and wakefulness where they’d spent the past hours.  
  
“Your training. It…I…I intended for it to be something of an apology, an _olive branch_ of sorts to use a human expression, but—”  
  
“An _apology_?!” Now, Stevonnie’s voice is nothing _but_ wakefulness. They sit up. “For _what_?!”  
  
Pearl slowly sighs. “When you fused for the first time, I—”  
  
“Oh.”  
  
Pearl peels her eyes up to look at them. “I…I should have...I was there when Ruby and Sapphire first fused. I…I had never seen anything like it. Other Gems, Homeworld Gems, said that they—that _Garnet_ —was inappropriate, and Blue Diamond ordered her to come apart…” A pause. “Homeworld never saw…” her hands twitch “Rose and I fuse, but if they had…well, I imagine the reaction would have been even stronger…and not in a good way. I used to daydream about it, what it would be like to show them all, flaunt it right in front of them…but in actuality, I really do dread to think…”  
  
“Pearl…”  
  
“They called Garnet inappropriate. They told her to un-fuse. They would have called Rainbow inappropriate if they had ever seen her. But Garnet _isn’t_ inappropriate. We’d— _I’d_ —be lost without her. And _Rainbow_ …I loved being her. I _miss_ being her. And yes, she was _subversive_ , that was part of what I loved about her, but she wasn’t _inappropriate_ …I should have known better than to say what they said to Garent—to _us_ —to you.”  


“It’s…it’s okay.”  
  
“It isn’t.”  
  
“But, I mean, I get it. I’m…” They glance away. “ _Different_.”  
  
“You are. And so was Garnet. And Rainbow. So was _I_ , in a different way. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t exist. And it doesn’t mean…”  
  
“What?”  
  
“It doesn’t mean I’m not proud of you.”  
  
Stevonnie blinks. “I…Really?”  
  
“Of course I am.” It’s an echo of her words that first time they’d shown themself to her, but Pearl’s voice had been hesitant then, defennsive. Now it’s softly matter-of-fact, accompanied by a small, solemn smile.  
  
“Well,” Stevonnie continues. “I guess you did tell Connie you were impressed with her sword-fighting, and Steven—”  
  
“I _am_ proud of Connie and Steven individually. But I’m also proud of _you_. I’m...sorry it’s taken me this long to say it.”  
  
This feels like the sort of thing that they should respond to, acknowledge, but words seem to momentarily fail them—like a weight as strong as Garnet’s gauntlets has suddenly been lifted from their chest, and it’s only in its sudden absence that they’re aware it had been there at all. Stevonnie lets that burden—or its disappearance—carry them back to the ground.  
  
“So,” they say, finally, eyeing the clouds. “Why now?”

“I suppose,” Pearl grips the back of her neck. “We met Smoky Quartz.”

“Smoky?”

A nod. “Steven and Amethyst were so excited to show them to us. _Smoky_ was so excited to show themself to us. Like you were, when you first fused. And when we met Smoky, Sardonyx—Garnet and I—we didn’t react as we should have.”

Stevonnie creases their eyebrows.

“We made the situation about us, and it shouldn’t have been. It was about them, their accomplishment, their relationship. We tried to make it right—”

“And you did!” Stevonnie sits up again, feels Steven speaking somewhere in them, urging them to comfort Pearl, because she shouldn’t be upset, not on their account, not after everything that she went through because of—

“But it did make me think of how I’d reacted when _you_ first showed yourself.” Pearl continues. “I...made it about myself then as well. It’s true that I didn’t understand how Gem-human fusion was possible—I still don’t—but…” she sighs. “There is still so much I don’t understand. I don’t understand many of the choices Rose made. I don’t understand my own freedom. But, even so, I know these things are worthwhile. And…” Her eyes meet theirs. She lays a firm, bracing hand on their shoulder. “You are worthwhile too. I hope, someday, you can forgive me for ever questioning that. For ever causing _you_ to question that.”

For a moment, words fail Stevonnie again. Water that they can’t explain wells up in their eyes, and they let it fall, before finally speaking. “Thanks, Pearl. And, you know something?”

“Hmm?”

Stevonnie lays down one more time. The grass is soft beneath their skin, gemstone warm in their stomach, and Pearl casts a cool calming shadow over them, just like she always does when they train, sparring in the Sky Arena. _Flexibility, love, and trust._ “I’m really proud of you too.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! I love comments!


End file.
